but approximations to the ideal; such incomplete fulfilment of the ideal is the inevitable condition of life, and is not sin,—everyone advances towards the ideal according to his powers.
But concession, or compromise in theory, is a great sin. If I, knowing that a straight line is a mathematical conception, try to draw one, I shall attain an approximation to a straight line; but if, seeing that it is impossible to draw a perfectly straight line, I decide that I may deviate from the ideal of the straight line, then I stray away, God knows where. It is the same with moral principles.
If, in principle, I refuse to admit my right to commit violence against men, in any case, then I approach abstinence from violence; but if I admit that one may use violence towards a madman (it is difl&cult to define madness, and to say when one may and when one may not resort to violence), then I risk deviating very far from the law of Non-resistance.
So with property. If I admit—as it is repeatedly stated in the Gospels, and as it is evident from the whole of Christ's teaching—that I may not hold property, then, even although I wear
